new training and development the challenges of commercialisation … · 2016. 4. 1. · training...

Training and development The challenges of commercialisation and diversification

Sponsored By Hosted by

Michael BirkettChief Executive,

The Regenda Group

Kiera VogelDirector of Planned

Maintenance, M&Y,

part of The Regenda Group

Paul DuttonDirector,

Dutton Fisher Associates

Jo FisherDirector,

Dutton Fisher Associates

Introduction

Housing People is a new series of forums aimed at training and development professionals within social housing. Through engaging presentations from industry leaders and active interaction with peers, Housing People addresses the strategic challenges facing social landlords from an HR and organisational development perspective.

Theme

The theme of the first Housing People forum focused on the issue of commercialisation and diversification, and debated: Do we empower and develop our existing employees or recruit new people with commercial backgrounds and different skill-sets?

Government welfare reforms and funding cuts are continuing to place social landlords under increasing financial pressure and as a result many are having to consider diversifying or adapting services to increase organisational efficiencies and enhance effectiveness – while also ensuring that existing staff have the right skills to deliver new services and operate in a competitive environment

Featuring contributions from The Regenda Group, M&Y – part of The Regenda Group – and Dutton Fisher Associates, this Housing People forum identified how organisations can continue to build a workforce in the face of commercial change and offered an insight into how The Regenda Group and M&Y are both addressing and responding to these issues.

Speaker and facillitator profiles

Kiera VogelDirector of Planned Maintenance, M&Y, part of The Regenda Group

Kiera joined M&Y – the commercial repairs and maintenance arm of the Regenda Group – following a successful career working in business development and maintenance and construction management roles for a number of leading housing associations. Kiera is managing the next phase of the company’s growth and diversification.

Michael BirkettChief Executive, The Regenda Group

Appointed in March 2014, Michael has an impressive track record in leadership and innovation and is driving the strategic direction of The Regenda Group. Michael is committed to addressing and embracing change, including diversifying services and commercial activities.

Jo FisherDirector, Dutton Fisher Associates

Jo has more than 20 years’ experience of developing managers across a range of sectors. She is an innovative and versatile trainer with a great talent for motivating individuals at all levels to excel in the workplace.

Paul DuttonDirector, Dutton Fisher Associates

Paul has a wide-ranging knowledge and practitioner experience of working in the social housing sector and supports a portfolio of leading registered providers – delivering certificated learning programmes, and people management and interpersonal skills training to staff working in housing roles.

Training and development

The challenges of commercialisation and diversification

Michael Birkett Chief Executive, The Regenda Group

Social landlords are operating in a sector that has an aggregate turnover of £14.9 billion, and in a world where we have an increasing obligation to be efficient and drive costs down – while dealing with the huge implications of welfare reform that threatens our income. Our organisations need to generate profit to ensure the social heart of our businesses continues to function, and this raises a number of key issues for diversification and commercialisation.

So how is The Regenda Group doing things?

Our organisational structure has grown to include Regenda – our housing association and RHL – the part of our organisation that looks after our growth in the private sector and has stock offering shared and home ownership and shared equity. We’ve also bought two companies: M&Y - the commercial repairs and maintenance arm of the Regenda Group and McDonald’s – a residential lettings business we acquired on the Fylde coast – resulting in us adopting these brands and their balance sheets.

It’s inevitable that diversification brings risks that needs to be managed and this includes changing the way we work.


So how can we build a workforce in the face of commercial change?

• Senior staff and decision makers should seek advice and look at best practice before acquiring businesses;

• Governance boards must have an understanding of all businesses that are acquired, so board members are equipped to make decisions in these areas;

• Consider the expectations and relationships between your organisation’s core business as a housing association and your subsidiary businesses.We need to operate flexibly to mirror the competition, and ensure that internally we’re able to respond to and operate at the required pace – having the right people in place to deliver this is crucial to achieving success;

• Manage culture effectively. In The Regenda Group’s case, it’s perfectly fine for each business to retain its own culture. We have different businesses operating in different marketplaces, with different competitors and customers – but they share group values and we are all working to the same aim.

• Each business should have its own terms and conditions which are competitive to the marketplace in which it operates. This may mean different parts of your business have various rates of pay, pension entitlements and conditions for sick pay.

Michael Birkett Chief Executive, The Regenda Group

Kiera Vogel Director of Planned Maintenance, M&Y, part of The Regenda Group

M&Y is the commercial arm that has been delivering repairs and maintenance to 13,000 Regenda Group properties for the last five years.

Our Managing Director came across when the business was acquired, and we have transformed this originally small SME into a business that has increased its turnover by £8 million.

Facing and addressing commercial challenges

Successful diversification does not come easy, and housing associations who set up commercial arms face huge challenges in terms of the other areas of the organisation understanding how it operates – ranging from back-office costs, to delivery costs, to overheads and what margins we’re making.

M&Y operates services across the whole of the North West – we’ve got depots in Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside and we are constantly evaluating the costs of operating in those areas, in addition to considering the services that we provide to ensure we offer a profit back to The Regenda Group.

Current M&Y objectives

A decision has been made for M&Y to deliver planned maintenance on behalf of The Regenda group.

We are going to be delivering around £3 million of planned works this year, so we need to operate commercially and make commercial decisions to achieve that target. We also have aspirations to achieve VAT savings on labour as well as retain some of the profits that would ordinarily go out to an external contractor.



Building the right workforce

In light of our ambitions, we need to bring the right external people into the business who understand the formality of working for a housing association and can strike a balance between influencing decisions in areas where housing associations are traditionally more risk adverse.

It’s important that every person in the business understands how much they cost the business, what their commercial targets are and what they are producing on the ground - that’s why we use commercial intelligence from our systems. We also issue our contracts managers with reports focused on productivity, in addition to challenging how behaviours are managed to achieve that profit.

Operating commercially

To achieve competitive costs it is essential that our terms and conditions are separate to the rest of the organisation. We also have different terms and conditions for different work streams within the business – including bonus and productivity payments for targets met.

We’re aspiring to grow and achieve a turnover of £20 million next year and then £30 million in 2016 – all through a combination of different work streams, offering internal services for Regenda and by winning and delivering external work.

For us, remaining competitive is key. We have to understand what our competitors are doing and remain flexible to changes in the market – it’s for this reason that we have an independent board to The Regenda Group. The board includes people who have commercial understanding, although we recognise that we do need to constantly review our members to ensure they are they setting enough challenges in order to meet our targets.

Tools to achieve success

At M&Y we invest in the following to help us to meet our targets and drive-up profit:

• Using technology to gain commercial intelligence, to put us on a par with our competitors;

• Testing and comparing the materials we use against what is being used in the market;

• We’ve now operating with a sole supply chain framework to see where we can increase efficiencies;

• Investing in accreditation and training to ensure all of our staff are aligned to our clear values and strategic direction;

• Being clear on the objectives of our three-year business plan so all staff are aware of their targets and business aspirations;

• Working closely with The Regenda Group to recruit new staff, gaining the right support to achieve what we need quickly to help deliver our commercial aims

Commercial transparency

Commercial transparency is important as it actively supports decision making to enable growth. There is a need to use commercial intelligence within the business to make intelligent decisions. M&Y’s vision is to increase profits and so in areas where The Regenda Group loses revenue, we can plug the gaps. However, to increase profits we have to reduce our spending, have informed budgets and manage our costs. By applying these principles we will deliver greater value and make more of a social impact.

Kiera Vogel Director of Planned Maintenance, M&Y, part of The Regenda Group


A dynamic and innovative Training and Management Consultancy delivering:

Leadership & management training (including coaching)

Apprenticeship training

Bespoke training and consultancy

Housing & other professional accredited qualifications

Developing Individuals. Transforming Organisations.

If you would like to get involved in or host a future Housing People event, please get in touch:

www.duttonfisher.com @DuttonFisher

T: 01943 609541 E: [email protected] E: [email protected]

Recruiting staff with the right values and commercial skills

Q2: Who can advise on interview questions and recruitment assessments if there are no commercial people with commercial skills in-house?

We felt that the best way to address this was to increase engagement with partners who act in a commercial way, to gain a better understanding of the skills that are required to work in a commercial environment.

We should also be turning to our board members to gain feedback on what commercial looks like and what it is that our organisation needs in terms of expanding our commercial skill-set. Interview questions can then be shaped around this information, in addition to investing in and working with a recruitment manager to fully understand what skills and qualities are required to secure the right candidate.

Q1: How can housing ensure that new staff from outside the sector fit with an organisation’s core social purpose?

Everybody agreed this should be considered from the beginning of the recruitment process to ensure potential interview candidates are aware of the organisation’s aims, values and objectives.

Following recruitment, organisational vison, values and its core social purpose should be further embedded during the induction process and also linked to our long-term business strategies. This will assist with managing talent within our businesses.

We believe that after the induction process, staff should be reminded of what sits within the behavioural framework for their organisation, and there is also an emphasis on managers to ensure that staff are committed to ensuring the delivery of the social purpose of the organisation on the ground.

In summary, communication is key, with internal and external messages being delivered consistently and frequently.

We do also have a duty to upskill people within the organisation who have got the right attitude and understand our business, but we all agreed that adequate training is necessary so staff are able to apply a commercial mind-set if required.

Roundtable one Facilitated by Kiera Vogel, Director of Planned Maintenance at M&Y,

part of The Regenda Group



Attracting new employees and further educating staff

Q1: How do you bring new recruits from outside the sector up to speed on social housing quickly?

Further developing responses for Q1 in the first roundtable group, we agreed it would be extremely useful to initially devise a competency framework to assist as a checklist during recruitment. This would align an organisation’s social values to its core values and commercial values.

Then, as a matter of course after recruitment, staff - including existing staff - should be regularly measured against how they are meeting expectations outlined on the competency framework (usually during appraisals and performance reviews), to ensure that all values are embedded throughout the organisation.

Another suggestion was to provide a buddy or mentor for new starters after their induction, to allow them to time to apply their learning and acquired knowledge, while settling into their organisation.

Q2: Are present qualifications suited to reskill staff commercially?

While this area had not been fully explored by everyone around the table, organisations should research available funding, while also contacting and building relationships with training and delivery partners – for example: Dutton Fisher Associates, and also sector skills councils, to find out what qualifications are currently available for staff to undertake.

Obtaining apprenticeship funding was identified as a fantastic way to upskill staff that are already employed, and another option is to equip, develop and accredit staff in new organisational areas such as health and social care - enabling organisations to fill a gap in the market, selling identified services.

Lastly qualifications should be tailored to meet organisational needs as much as they can be. For example, instead of just lifting the Qualification Credit Framework off the shelf it should be discussed with trainers - what you want; how this can be delivered; what are your core values and how can we ensure we’re working together to achieve those things?

Roundtable two Facilitated by Jo Fisher, Director, Dutton Fisher Associates


Q3: Is there a disconnect between those setting commercial objectives and those having to deliver them?

A disconnect may or may not exist, but there will be instances of when a visionary leadership team sets challenging commercial objectives – but others in the organisation are tasked with leading the delivery.

People need to have certain skills and behaviours to ensure that delivery runs smoothly, and it is important that those leaders selected to deliver commercial objectives are able to bring the best out of others – this may not necessarily be the senior management team. For this reason we recommend that we empower staff delivering objectives to challenge each other, and set realistic KPI’s, in addition to ensuring strategic change is implemented – whether it be risk taking or decision making.

Our leaders must be developed to think different and more commercially so their thinking becomes aligned to those in the senior team. They must also be developed to challenge staff who are not meeting personal performance objectives and have an awareness of how our partners are performing - assessing if they are delivering upon their promises, including reviewing what they are not doing and how we address that going forward

Roundtable two Facilitated by Jo Fisher, Director, Dutton Fisher Associates



Benchmarking, recruitment and staff development

Q1: If housing associations are acting more commercially should the sector continue to benchmark itself against other housing associations or move to benchmarking against commercial organisations?

Firstly, we agreed that we do need to continue benchmarking against other housing associations but this does depend on the services that we are delivering. For this reason there needs to be a balance and it was felt that we should be aspiring to benchmark ourselves against the best. This may mean benchmarking against commercial organisations – while also benchmarking against the European Framework Quality Management.

As businesses, we need to demonstrate flexibility and ensure that we have a robust set of skills within our organisations. Benchmarking can help us to ensure that we have the right skills sets within our businesses and it can also highlight where we need to plug any gaps.

Q2: How do we ensure that existing staff are given ample opportunities to deliver new services – what new skills and training will they require?

This is a tough question to tackle and we felt it was essential that staff feel supported to develop and deliver in areas that are new to their areas of expertise. Attracting the right people to deliver new services is key, while ensuring they are up-skilled correctly.

Separate to developing existing staff, we also discussed increasing focus on offering graduate programmes to train in particular areas where perhaps current staff are not experienced. Taking this approach would ensure that new graduates are committed to working within our organisations for a certain amount of time, resulting in us retaining talent that is tailored to our needs. This would also help to avoid our organisations from having a skills and knowledge gap, as naturally our more experienced staff members will eventually retire.

Roundtable three Facilitated by Paul Dutton, Director, Dutton Fisher Associates


Q3: What approaches does your organisation take when you recruit outside the social housing sector?

Apprenticeships are a great way to recruit new blood into our organisations – especially when recruiting those who are not from a social housing background. Apprentices can be a variety of ages and could also include those who are now coming out of school with their A levels and looking to find work without getting into debt by going to university. It was also discussed that if we are recruiting on a values basis we can recruit tenants but depending on the opportunities available we need to recruit people who are job ready and skilled appropriately – we need to have the right support mechanisms in place to develop people into their roles, avoiding failure.

Another option is to recruit people from other sectors – whilst also acquiring skills we must recruit people that are in harmony with organisation’s values and culture.

Roundtable three Facilitated by Paul Dutton, Director, Dutton Fisher Associates

Contact Organisation Job Title

Karen Atkinson City West OD Project Manager

Alison Berry Together Housing Group Organisational Development Manager

Margaret Glossop Eastlands Homes People Development Officer

Anita Hannan City South Housing Trust Learning and Development Manager

Audrey Hanson Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing HR Manager

Vicki Howard The Calico Group Head of HR

Adrian Jackson SFJ Awards Managing Director

Rhys Jones-Orriss First Choice Homes Oldham Learning and Development Manager

Dawn Kanes First Choice Homes Oldham Learning and Development Advisor

Catherine Murphy One Vision Housing Learning and Development Team Leader

Grenville Williams Great Places Housing Group Learning and Development Manager

Chris Smith Adactus Housing Group Operations Director

Rebecca Thomas Sovini ‎Senior Human Resources Officer

James Brown Skills Solutions

Delegate list

Thank you to all of the following delegates who attended this Housing People forum:



Dr Paul Dutton, Director

Paul has both wide-ranging knowledge and practitioner experience of working in the social housing sector. He is a corporatemember of the Chartered Institute of Housing and has extensive experience of delivering training and certificated learning programmes to staff working in housing roles.

Jo Fisher M.Ed PCET, Director

Jo is an inspirational learning and development professional. She has more than 20 years’ experience of developing managers across a range of sectors. She is an innovative and versatile trainer with a great talent for motivating individuals at all levels to excel in the workplace.

Contact us to see how our team can help you

T: 01943 609541 E: [email protected] E: [email protected]

www.duttonfisher.com @DuttonFisher

Address: 39 The Grove Ilkley West Yorkshire LS29 9NJ

Dutton Fisher Associates is the sponsor of Housing People, the social housing training and development forum.

For more information visit:www.housing-people.co.uk

@Housing_People

HousingPeople

new training and development the challenges of commercialisation … · 2016. 4. 1. · training...

Documents